Various kinds of examination apparatuses are utilized in ophthalmology. Examples of such apparatuses include apparatuses for acquiring an image of a subject's eye (referred to as ophthalmic imaging apparatuses), and apparatuses for measuring a characteristic of a subject's eye (referred to as ophthalmic measurement apparatuses). Examples of the ophthalmic imaging apparatuses include optical coherence tomography apparatuses (OCT apparatuses for short), fundus cameras, slit lamp microscopes, and scanning laser ophthalmoscopes (SLOs for short). Examples of the ophthalmic measurement apparatuses include refractometers, keratometers, tonometers, and perimeters. In addition, multifunctional apparatuses that are configured to be capable of performing two or more kinds of examinations (e.g., imaging and/or measurements) are also used. Further, there also are ophthalmic examination apparatuses (e.g., ophthalmic imaging apparatuses, ophthalmic measurement apparatuses, and/or computers) that have a function of analyzing data acquired by imaging or measurement.
In recent years, early detection of disease, early treatment of disease, and preventive medicine attract attention, and research and development have been pursued for the improvement in examination accuracy for detecting slight symptoms and for establishing screening tests for estimating the possibility of the onset of disease before the appearance of symptoms. However, such advanced medical care is hardly provided in the present circumstances except for at advanced medical organizations such as university hospitals and core hospitals.
Meanwhile, a person who has become conscious of a symptom usually does not go to such an advanced medical organization but goes to a nearby clinic or the like. In addition, occasions for undergoing an examination before becoming conscious of a symptom are practically limited to standard medical check-up. Accordingly, although it is ideal to perform screening tests or the like, it is difficult to bring screening tests into practice in an effective and efficient manner.
Note that there are cases where a clinic or the like introduces a patient to another medical organization. In such a case, time, cost and physical burdens on the patient are large for the reason of carrying out similar examinations again, for example. One cause of such a problem is that systems for sharing electronic medical records and medical images among a plurality of medical organizations have not been established yet.
As described above, various kinds of examinations are carried out in the ophthalmology department. Further, in addition to unique examinations to ophthalmology, examinations common to other medical specialties (e.g., clinical examinations such as blood tests and biopsy) are also performed. There are differences in the kinds and the number of examinations that can be carried out between advanced medical organizations and other medical organizations. Hence, it is thought that the above problem is comparatively serious for ophthalmology.
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